GYCE Focus 2016: Coming to Christ

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GYC Europe

Sanctuary and Sanctification: God's Solution to Sin

Sebastien Braxton

Sanctuary and Sanctification: God’s Solution to Sin- Part 1

You are the 1 that inspired the construction of this building.

You gave men talent and gift and wisdom to build it and to design it something that was otherworldly and So Lord we pray that as we reflect upon these things thousands of years removed We ask that our minds may be sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit.

We pray that our ideas may come through the path of simplicity and that we may arrive not just at understanding but at wisdom and a new way of living is our prayer in Jesus name amen now we've I've entitled this light in the shadows light in the shadows I chose this title to pay respects to a theologian that is Significantly impacted my own spiritual walk in my own theological study and pursuit of a deeper understanding of the Bible and of God.

And he wrote an article years ago, years and years ago, before I was even Adventist, called Light in the Shadows, and he was discussing the sanctuary and the doctrine of salvation and relating the 2 together.

And so since I was doing this seminar that I felt was really drawing upon some of the concepts he was introducing, that I felt like it was only proper for me to pay tribute to him and his contribution to our church and our better understanding of our Adventist identity as understood through the sanctuary and that approach that it gives us on salvation.

Now, in Genesis chapter 11 in verse 14, we are introduced to the beginning of a human obsession.

Human beings from the very beginning of time have been obsessed with building things.

We love to build and specifically this obsession with building things is attached to the concepts of a nation, the first nation, a global society that was networked under a idea of rebelling against God.

Now their idea was not to rebel against God.

Their idea was not to trust God, but to trust themselves.

You know, 1 of my favorite basketball teams, 1 of their slogans is strength in numbers.

But unfortunately, that doesn't really apply when it comes to spiritual things.

There may be a certain amount of strength in numbers.

And mind you, when you go to Genesis chapter 11, the Bible says that here these men said, come let us build.

They introduce and create this concept of brick and mortar.

And then the Bible says that God comes down to investigate the building that these men are building Now it's interesting that God doesn't send someone to investigate but God feels like this thing is so Enormous, This is so concerning.

This is such a universal issue that God has to come down and see it for himself.

And God says that, look at this thing that these men begin to do.

And he says, there's nothing that they imagine to do that will be withheld from them.

The power of unity, God said, is so powerful that even if we were united against His will, He says, there's nothing that you would imagine to do that you could not do The only thing that could stop them from achieving their aim of building a tower all the way up to heaven Was God to come down and confuse their language?

And this passion for building things never left us.

We might have spoken different languages, but it was still present.

You find that these are actually some of the tallest buildings in the world.

And obviously, you notice the tallest 1 there on the far left, I grew up in Chicago, and there was a time where the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world.

I had to come back and someone corrected me, and I was like, yeah, the tallest building is in Chicago, you know, I'm from Chicago.

And then they were like, actually, it's not in Chicago.

So if you look up here, you'll notice all these buildings.

But the 1 on the far left, that 1 seems to kind of surpass everyone.

I know it looks like it's a slight amount.

But if you understand what we're talking about, meters and hundreds of meters taller than these other buildings.

Now, the Burj Khalifa is in the city of Dubai, which is in the Emirate of Dubai.

The Sheikh of that Emirate, his name is Sheikh Mohammed.

Now, Sheikh Mohammed is the 1 that built the tower, but the name Khalifa comes from Sheikh Khalifa, who runs Abu Dhabi.

So how is it possible that he built a building in his own emirate?

So emirate is basically the rulership of this prince.

And so United Arab Emirates is like the United States of America in a sense.

All the princes came together and then they elect a prime minister who happens to be Khalifa at this time.

So what happened was Sheikh Mohammed was building the Burj Khalifa and about 80% through it he ran out of money.

So he went to Khalifa, his sistering emirate, who was also the president of, not the president, but the prime minister of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

And he said, yeah, I'll give you the money.

The only thing is you need to name the building after me.

You see that the desire to make a name for yourself continues with buildings.

You Think about even Donald Trump, Trump Towers, right?

I mean, don't worry, I have no, let me not lose my sanctification, so.

But you realize that names, Being in this association with humanity's obsession for building now, what do you think is the primary purpose of many of these buildings?

Many of these towers they're not built to any specific Higher Meaning or purpose when you think about these buildings many of these buildings are built simply for the aim of commerce or business They are simply office space for people to say I'm gonna rent this whole floor and they charge these ridiculous prices And if you go to the all the way to the top of the Burj Khalifa, literally if the sun was setting, if you go to the top, the sun will be up.

It's almost, I think it's a little more than a kilometer high.

It's almost half a mile high, is the building.

So, you could be at sunset, go to the top of the building, and the sun will be above the horizon.

Now, they pride themselves on this thing.

When you think about the fact that in these buildings that are made for commerce, that are made for business, you recognize that also we have a similar concern when it comes to spiritual things.

Humanity has also been building from even ancient times.

If you look at the fact that you have some of these ruins there when I was in Cambodia, in Kerwate, and you have this thing that is still standing, and this was built by human beings hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, thousands of years ago.

You look at the Taj Mahal, you know what the Taj Mahal is, right?

Can you imagine that a man built his, yes.

Sorry, built this tomb simply for a woman who is dead.

So what you also realize is even beyond purposes of commerce, right, just to pay homage to a dead woman that he loved, he built the Taj Mahal.

Now we can go even further and you look at this Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

If you go there and you're recognizing the building literally has carved gold, literal gold, in the building.

All of these are actually places of worship that you see on the screen.

So you look at this building here on the bottom right, these individuals are trying to maximize the fact that architecture was also attached to belief and a relationship with God.

So this is why many times you'll notice churches are built a certain direction, facing a certain part of the cardinal direction to allow natural light to come in, because light was considered to be a symbol of the presence of God.

It was considered to be a symbol of the presence of God.

It was considered to be a symbol of the favor of God.

So you have places coming up with creative ways to explore how the architecture can maximize light naturally coming in.

This 1 on the left, you wouldn't even know that that was a church, a worship place.

You just come in, you sit on the floor, you worship, because the whole focus is upon the spiritual, it's not upon the physical.

And this is how we continue to build edifices.

This is some more churches, really famous churches around the world.

This building here on the top right, I know it's hard to see with the light.

It actually is formed like a cross when it opens up.

So it starts off like a straight, long building.

And when you open up to welcome the members the doors open into making a cross when you look at this and then of course it closes back when the members leave so the whole idea and they worship with those doors open like that to basically talk about the architecture is expressing a certain theological point about God himself.

You look at this 1 on the left, same thing.

Everything's building up towards the center which is leading towards a vertical looking so the worship experience happens beneath the dome of heaven and we're able to look into this natural light and receive the light of God's presence and his favor.

Now God when he decided to make his house go to Isaiah chapter 56 in verse 7 God decided that His house was going to be for a very specific purpose.

The Bible says, Even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of what?

So God looks at His sanctuary that He told them, let them make Me a sanctuary that what?

Sanctuary and Sanctification: God’s Solution to Sin- Part 2

Alright, so, as we kind of talked about the first 2, which is the sacrifice and the mediatorial ministry of the priest as 2 of the focuses, but there's 3.

So, I just want to touch on the third 1 briefly.

So, when we look at the third element of the sanctuary parable, it is the final judgment, right, which is what's resulting from the Most Holy Place ministry.

Now, this is tied, obviously, to the priestly ministry, just like the priestly ministry is tied to the substitutionary sacrifice.

So, if the substitutionary sacrifice is a reminder of the death of Jesus, then the priestly ministry is only possible through the death of Jesus because obviously he needs blood to minister.

But not only that, that blood also has to be carried into the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary.

And it is through that process that leads into the final judgment of all of the sins on the sanctuary being transferred to the scapegoat.

So I just want to recap again briefly because I don't think I specified in my final remarks that that was the third aspect of the parable.

So, again, the first 1 is the substitutionary sacrifice.

The second 1 is the mediatorial ministry of the priests.

And the third 1 is the final judgment, which is what we were just talking about in the most holy place That only happened once a year Okay, so let's talk about sanctification What can the sanctuary teach us in this parable about sanctification?

Now, I know that some of you probably subscribe to the idea that the outer court is about justification, then the holy place is sanctification, and then the most holy place is glorification.

You've probably heard that before, right?

But as you study the parable, you don't really get that from the Bible.

Now that doesn't mean that when people say that they're being heretical.

What we're saying is they're trying to be allegorical They're saying that oh, this is a part of Sanctification, but we have to be clear that sanctification is not just something that is a process right?

How many of you guys have ever heard the statement, sanctification is the work of a lifetime?

Okay, now you said sanctification is the work of a lifetime, right?

How many of you guys believe that sanctification is the work of a lifetime?

What do you mean every day you're going to be holy.

That means I have to be perfectly sanctified every day.

It's not a matter of long length of time.

Because I don't live at the moment of my last rites.

Because some people put this like in the future, in the future, in the future.

That's not going to make a big difference.

So, I want to share with you a verse in the Bible.

This is where things sometimes get confusing.

And this is where the sanctuary can be helpful.

So this is the Paul recounting his testimony and Jesus is talking to him.

Okay, it says, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are what?

Now is that future, present, or past tense?

It says, who have been sanctified, past tense.

If you are, that means you are on the present benefit of a past action.

You are sanctified today, that means it was completed in the past.

So, that's actually a better translation of the Greek.

Now, if you are sanctified past tense, how can it be the work of a lifetime?

Right, but keeping it holy and making it holy are 2 different things.

Okay, let me clue you in on something, right?

The word sanctification and the word for holy are the same word.

They just chose different words because they want to say holification.

So when you say, oh, they will be made holy, they'll be made sanctified.

So when he says you are now sanctified, right, you receive forgiveness of sins and you are now sanctified.

But then at the same token, right, let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

Now may the God of peace himself do what?

Completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful who also will do it so now acts 26 18 says Paul your job is to bring people from the power of Satan unto the power of God so that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified then Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica and says you know what my prayer for you is is that God was sanctify you completely and preserve you blameless completely and preserve you blameless.

But it's also the same thing in glorified.

The scholar also said that we've always been justified, sanctified and glorified, but yet we're here.

Well, he also said he's sitting in heaven.

He's saying, this has been done, I accept it.

It will be also in the future, because I keep it.

But there's a difference by saying something has been done, right?

Wouldn't be the same thing, but I understand your point.

Right, but there's a difference by saying the lamb was slain right when you say when you use that illustration you're saying that the lamb was slain but it had not actually been slain yet right so what do we mean by the lamb was slain?

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Sanctuary and Sanctification: God's Solution to Sin

Sanctuary and Sanctification: God’s Solution to Sin- Part 2

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Sanctuary and Sanctification: God’s Solution to Sin- Part 1

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Sanctuary and Sanctification: God’s Solution to Sin- Part 2

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